*Despite everything, it's still you*

     From Call of Duty to League of Legends, first-person shooters are one of the most popular video game categories. After all, immersing yourself in a fictive world battling enemies, and saving the innocents is quite entertaining. But do we really need all that violence to feel satisfied?

    Lots of peaceful games, such as farming simulators or RPGs, will have smaller fandoms and less public recognition. Although there is one game that somewhat broke that rule. A game that united peace and war in a playful mess of a game.

   
Well, welcome back to my very own nerdy blog! Today, I will be presenting to you Undertale a silly and creative game that impacted the gaming community with its awesome story and unique game elements. 

If you want to learn more on the subject, you should take a look at this interesting NPR article!

Oh! And if you want to immerse yourself a little, I highly suggest you listen to Fallen Down, my favorite soundtrack from the game.

A brief summary of the article

    Undertale was almost entirely created by Toby Fox and released in 2015 on Microsoft Windows and OS X. Since then, multiple other platforms have welcomed it. In this game, the player incarnates a child who has fallen down into the Underworld, a pit full of monsters. From then on, the child has two choices: to kill or to spare... I will be going into depth on this subject a bit later on.

    Undertale had a huge impact on the younger generation and its taste in entertainment; not only that, but it also impacted the internet culture as a whole! The game has a distinctive aesthetic and soundtrack that makes it just that more unique. Don't be fooled, woven through the comedic aspect of the game and the funky music is a much deeper lesson.

    In fact, Undertale is considered a classic for a reason.

PAUSE! I think it's important for me to say that this is a major spoiler warning about the game's ending! On that note, let's continue!

    
    As mentioned before, the player is given the choice to either kill the monsters they encounter or spare them. This mechanic is presented at the very beginning of the game when you encounter Toriel, the very first boss of Undertale, but is sadly often looked upon. Just like the writer of the article, many gamers decide to take the route they have always taken while playing other video games... killing everything and everyone...

    At the very end of the game, a skeleton named Sans explains the atrocities the player committed. How the so-called "monsters" were really just creatures with a life of their own, some of them were even beloved of others; a few examples are Papyrus or Undyne. It is safe to say that violence is not always the answer according to the game.

The final encounter, alias the reality check

My opinion on the subject

    This article makes a great job of summarizing why Undertale is a video game classic. Also, I find it interesting that I and the author of the article both had the same experience playing the game. Truthfully, I also ignored Toriel's advice and decided to go on a rampage. As the author said, it is what we got used to and what we previously experienced with other video games. 

    I think this reality check that the player experiences at the end of Undertale makes the game have an even bigger impact. I know it hit me quite hard when I finished my first walkthrough! Even today, more than five years after its release, its influence is huge. It makes you realize that violence is not always the option in a conflict. A cute, funny, and interesting game with an interesting twist that makes you reflect on your behavior, what else can you ask for?

After reading the article, did Toby Fox plan out the story and characters before starting to work on Undertale?